Shake Recipe

It’s a rare day that I don’t get asked by someone for ideas on how to make their protein shakes taste better. To be honest, I don’t blame them.

Most protein powders taste pretty gross (especially if mixed with just water) and the good powders are kind of like pizza day at school. Yeah it’s “good” but only compared to the rest of the slop that they serve, it’s certainly not TGIF worthy.

I should say that I always advocate whole food meals whenever possible, but I do know that shakes have their time and place. It’s too easy, though, to let protein shakes became a crutch for bad nutritional planning. “I should make dinner…but then I might miss Glee! I’ll just have a shake.” We’ve all been in this situation but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. DVR that shiz and get in the kitchen!

Even though protein powders are a useful tool for ensuring proper protein consumption, they’re pretty devoid of nutritional content; by themselves they aren’t really a meal replacement. That doesn’t mean they can’t be. Enter the blender…

The following shake is one that I used every morning for about a year. It’s a very useful weight gain* shake that is full of nutrition. The ingredients will be in the order I put them in and reasons will be given below.

Pour it into a large cup and drink. The important thing to remember here is that this is (a lot of) food so you need to drink it pretty fast or you will get full and not be able to finish, which is fine if you want to split it into more than one serving, but that’s not what I did. If you do drink the whole thing, make sure to have a hot shower handy. I don’t know the exact reasons why it helps, maybe the warm water helps to relax and expand the stomach and increase circulation, but it does.

*I bolded this to emphasize that you SHOULD NOT eat this shake if you are trying to do anything other than bulking up. Please don’t make this shake for breakfast for the next two months while doing jazzercize with your mom at the Y and then send me an email complaining that you look like Gilbert Grapes mom.